Arjun The Warrior Prince (2012) Movie Review
I genuinely feel that Ramayana and Mahabharata are most fascinating and spellbinding stories. These epics are simply perfect, unique and beyond compare. Naturally, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Ramayana and Mahabharata have inspired film-makers in every decade. Though narrated inestimable times on celluloid, director Arnab Chaudhuri attempts an animated mythological that makes you sit back and relish the legend on screen — ARJUN THE WARRIOR PRINCE.
Told with elegance, ARJUN THE WARRIOR PRINCE catches your attention for varied reasons: The animation, which is vivacious and vibrant, the energetic combat scenes, but most importantly, it’s narrated in the most simplistic manner. For those who’re well aware, and even those who aren’t, it’s a faithful retelling of one of our favorite stories. Even the speech is not chaste Sanskrit and strikes a chord with the viewer.
The epic animated feature narrates the heroic journey of the legendary warrior prince, Arjun, from the days of his youthful innocence to his emergence as a valiant hero, who single-handedly took on an entire army. It explores his life with his brothers in Hastinapur, his training and education and his ultimate discovery of the warrior within himself.
While ARJUN THE WARRIOR PRINCE takes a step frontward as far as the animation is concerned — the conception artists have worked really hard to recreate the era, while the animators breathe life into them — the two issues that I have with the film is [i] The leisurely pacing, at times, destabilizes these efforts and [ii] The culmination seems abrupt. Ideally, one would’ve expected the storyteller to include the historic Kurukshetra war between Pandavas and Kauravas, but it concludes prior to that. Seems like the director was in a tearing rush to conclude the film.
Yet, despite the inadequacies, I’d like to make a special note of the animatronics here, which is more refined than the animation films made in India. The animation is not superlative, but much superior to most we’ve witnessed thus far. If you’ve braved the animation films made in India in the past, this one will come as a pleasant and welcome change.
On the whole, ARJUN THE WARRIOR PRINCE needs to be watched for its animation, for its storytelling and most importantly, it makes an earnest effort to relive the mythology.
